"Blind terror" is not a good response to the current controversy over MRSA infections which is only exploiting the fears of vulnerable people, an NUI Galway expert in bacteriology has warned.
Laying sole blame on the Minister for Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) isn't helpful either when society has to take responsibility for overuse of antibiotics, according to Prof Martin Cormican, NUI Galway (NUIG) professor of bacteriology.
Prof Cormican, who delivered a public lecture on the issue in NUIG late last week, believes that implementing five steps could help to reduce the incidence of the superbug which, he points out, is "very rare" in states such as The Netherlands and Sweden.
Negative images of a "killer superbug" which are "beyond our control" must be challenged, he said, as such publicity was deterring some ill people from going to hospital.
Significantly, both Sweden and The Netherlands had a strong ethos of public health, he said.
Prof Cormican said MRSA, or meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, had been around since at least 1961, and infection control had always been an issue within the medical system.
"If we didn't have MRSA, we would have another type of bug which is resistant to antibiotics, and a combination of controlling hygiene in hospitals and reducing use of antibiotics can help to tackle it," he said.
He is critical of the lack of national data on many types of infections occurring as a result of medical intervention and, he said,this could be a function given to properly resourced infection-control teams, established within medical environments.
"If we don't have surveillance, we cannot take preventative measures, nor can we chart improvements," he said.
A recently reported HSE estimate that up to 3,000 people were being infected by MRSA every year could not be verified without such surveillance, he said.
Prof Cormican also recommends a policy of isolation of infected patients, along with continuous training of and support for medical staff in hand washing. Disciplinary sanctions should be introduced where such training did not work, he said.
Laboratories must also have the capacity to detect bacteria and examine the relationships between bacteria, he said.
"A hospital hygiene audit isn't enough - that's a bit like a chair with one leg," he said. "We need a co-ordinated approach to implementing all of these measures."
Prof Cormican said that he and colleagues had tried to press the issue as a priority with politicians during his term as president of the Irish Society for Clinical Microbiology from 2003 to 2006.
He cited the lyrics of the rock group, The Jam, in relation to the response - "the public gets what the public wants".
